Overview

2011 Missions Conference

Our Global Missions Team:
Matthew & Sarah Bates
Rick & Vi Brooks 
Jim & Betty Brown
Cara Capps 
Patrick & Gina Cassidy
John & Angela Condie
Frank & Roberta Curtis
Pink & Selena Davis
Alan & Beverly Ginn   
Allen Graham
Penny Harden
Mei-Mei Lee
Wai & Vicky Lim 
Steve & Joyce Louie
Roy & Amy Low
Richard & Margine Mercado 
Eric & Kristi Mock
Jeff & Tami Mould
Dave & Peggy Pardini
Alberto & Paloma Perez
Roger & Nola Perrott
Alton & Cheryl Shady
Jerry & Amy Smith
Kady Smith
Mike & Brenda Smith
Richard & Sue Stepanek
Dongza Thawng
Tim & Peggy Wong 
First Resort
CBM

Short Term Missionaries

Jim & Betty Brown

Biblical Ministries Worldwide
1595 Herrington Road
Lawrenceville, GA 30043-5616
770.339.3500
Mission Field: Area Director for 10/40 Window
Supported since: 2010

Prayer Letter

_This report is the last one for 2011.  Betty and I leave for California to be with three of our kids and their families. Because we’re so far away, this is an awesome privilege. Being in our grandkids’ lives just doesn’t happen enough for us. And on the 29th we complete and 50 years of marriage! After dragging Betty into the primitive Alaskan wilderness during our first year of marriage and living 100 miles away from the hospital for the birth of our three girls (not to mention outside toilets in below zero temps), she deserves a shout and a special endurance award. A remarkable wife! I am amazingly blessed!
 
2011 has been a year when God has given us some great guys and gals to pour into. They are developing into godly men and women who are in a passionate pursuit of God’s heart. Consequently, God is powerfully changing them into His image. Let me share a few illustrations from this last week ministry.
 
One young businessman, who owns his own company and whom I’ve poured into for a couple of years has a January wedding planned. In our early Tuesday morning Starbucks meeting he said, “Since we have been meeting for discipleship, God has been revolutionizing my life. This marriage absolutely would not be happening without you.” 
 
Another guy I hang out with is a Bible school dropout. He rebelled against his Christian home training by becoming an atheist. But drugs, alcohol and other pleasures didn’t bring the satisfaction he sought. God in loving patience brought him back to Himself. Now he has authored his first book, which will be out next month. Reading between the lines, I'm sure you have probably guessed that his life has not been easy. God had to make some drastic changes in his life.  He leaned over our Starbuck’s table and said, “ I'm so glad you are with me on this journey.” Discipleship accountability is a value he relishes.
 
Another disciple I met with for the first time came from a Christian home but got angry with God and went out and did his own thing. He felt God was distant and really didn’t care for him. In the university he chose a life of sin, but God went after him and reeled him in.  Now this guy wants me to walk with him as he deals with some of the baggage that came out of that time away from God and help him on his spiritual journey. 
 
A fairly new disciple, I’ve met with only a couple of times, is a leader in a Christian campus organization. He knows his Bible well. And he’s constantly sharing the good news. But he was puzzled by the fact that as he studied all day for final exams, he didn’t feel close to God.  He was mystified by this experience and wondered what caused this?  In response I shared that our feelings don’t always tell us the truth. Feelings can be unreliable.
 
So I took him to gospel of John where Jesus states to his disciples that he will never leave or forsake them.  So I asked this guy, “Did God mean that or not?” He quickly answered in the affirmative. Then I said, “You have to take it by faith that God is there, even when you can’t ‘feel’ him.” Sometimes we want God to do it our way, but God may have other purposes in mind. We just have to take it by faith that God does not change or go back on His word.  He is near us, even when we can’t feel him. Then I dropped the bomb, “You see, you are in God’s school and He’s stretching your understanding of faith. Your horizon is expanding. He’s there whether you feel him or not. ”  God is pushing him in new spiritual territory.
 
Yesterday, I hung out at Octane Coffee with a disciple (a MK missionary kid) who grew up living in Indonesia, Iraq (during the war) and the US. After getting married, he and his new wife moved to Thailand where he got involved in rescuing girls who were imprisoned in the sex slave industry. Now he’s in a new phase of his life and taking training in the police academy here in Atlanta. He’s in a passionate pursuit to help people and to invest his life where it really counts. Who knows where this guy will end up? Walking with this guy promises to be a real adventure.


Ministry here is exciting, because of your regular praying for our ministry. God hears the prayers of His people. Paul wrote the Corinthians “…There is a wide open door for a great work here….” Betty and I affirm that God is using your prayers to allow us to enter into this great work for His glory. Thank you for your faithful prayers and financial support. We are overwhelmed by your love and encouraged by the Spirit of God. God bless you and give you a blessed Christmas.

Jim 

Jim Brown
"Only those who see the invisible can attempt the impossible."